popwarner.com - 2005 Award Recipients

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"The journey is always what has pleased me. I'm honored to be called a pioneer, because I'm glad that women can find encouragement in my career. I was never in it for the fame, I was in it for the game." - (Lesley Visser)

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About Lesley Visser:

Lesley Visser, who this summer became the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic torch, recently joined THE NFL ON CBS's No. 1 announce team with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms as the lead sideline reporter, returning to a role she served with both CBS Sports and ABC Sports. Visser was honored by the International Olympic Committee as a "pioneer and standard-bearer." She has been covering sports for more than 30 years, nearly half of them for CBS. One of the most honored and versatile reporters, Visser returned to CBS Sports in August 2000 as a contributor to THE NFL TODAY, college basketball, U.S. Open Tennis Championships, figure skating and horse racing, as well as for special projects with CBS Sports and CBS News.

Lesley Visser became the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch when she was honored in 2004 by the International Olympic Committee as a "pioneer and standard-bearer." Visser is the only sportscaster in history who has worked on the network broadcast of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open and World Figure Skating Championship.

Visser is working her 26th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, having worked the tournament for the Boston Globe, ESPN and CBS. In 2003 she celebrated her 30th year covering the NFL. She was a reporter for THE SUPER BOWL TODAY, CBS Sports' Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII pre-game broadcasts. Visser also contributes reports for CBS News and serves as a reporter for HBO Sports' "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

She spent nearly seven years with ABC Sports and was a sideline reporter for "Monday Night Football," becoming the first woman assigned to the series and the first woman ever to report from the sidelines during a Super Bowl. While at ABC Sports, Visser served as a reporter for college football bowl games and NFL playoff games. She also contributed to ABC's coverage of Triple Crown horse racing, "ABC's Wide World of Sports," Major League Baseball, including the World Series, figure skating, Special Olympics, skiing, the Pro Bowl, and an ABC series "A Passion to Play."

She hosted the network's coverage of the "Millennium Tournament of Roses Parade." She returned to CBS Sports in August 2000 as a contributor to THE NFL TODAY, college basketball, figure skating and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Visser covered the NCAA Final Four and Super Bowl for ESPN. She joined CBS Sports in 1984 and became full-time in 1987. Her assignments included the NBA, college basketball, MLB, college football, U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Winter Olympics, and she was a regular on THE NFL TODAY. In 1992 Visser became the first woman to handle the post-game presentation ceremony at the Super Bowl and in 1989 she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, focusing on how sports would change in East Germany.

Visser began her career in sports journalism in 1974 as a member of the Boston Globe sports staff on a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, two years later she was assigned to cover the New England Patriots, becoming the first ever female NFL beat writer.

While at the Boston Globe she covered the NCAA Final Four, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, Wimbledon, the Olympics and college football. Visser has been honored with the Compass Award for "changing the paradigm of her business" and was one of the 100 luminaries commemorating the 75th anniversary of the CBS Television Network in 2003.

She was named "WISE Woman of the Year" in 2002 and voted the "Outstanding Women's Sportswriter in America" in 1983 and won the "Women's Sports Foundation Award for Journalism" in 1992. In 1999 she won the first AWSM Pioneer Award.

Visser graduated cum laude in English from Boston College. She was born Sept. 11 in Quincy, Mass. and currently resides in Boca Raton, Fla. Lesley is married to FOX/Turner sportscaster Dick Stockton.

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"The three most important things for a sportscaster are knowledge of the game, a passion for sports and the profession, and the stamina to struggle." Although it requires hard work to make it into the profession, once in, the struggle is well worth it."

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